Practice your hearing before it counts.
Volunteer for civil and criminal mock hearings, trials, and mediations with other members. Everyone uses made-up names and facts; the arguments and the law are real practice.
Free for members · $5.00 per hour for non-members
How to use Moot Court and Drafting Studio
Every feature, step by step: finding and organizing a moot court, volunteering, running the session, streaming, certificates, and preparing your papers. Captions are on. Pick a chapter to jump to it.
Anyone 18 or older. No experience needed.
You don't need to be a lawyer, paralegal, or expert to be a judge, mediator, plaintiff, or defendant. The only requirements are being at least 18 and treating everyone with civility and respect.
- Be courteous. No insults, threats, or harassment
- Use made-up names and facts only
- Follow the judge or mediator's directions
- Arrive on time and give notice if you withdraw
Be on call for moot court
Join the permanent list as a judge, plaintiff, defendant, prosecutor, defense, or witness. Organizers invite you to cases and you accept or decline, ideally at least 24 hours ahead. Great practice for college and law students, attorneys, and anyone preparing for court.
Earn practical hours with an official record
Every completed session adds practical hours to your transcript automatically. Order a sealed, numbered Certificate of Completion and Official Transcript for any session for $5. Colleges and programs may award credit at their discretion.
Positions, phases, and time
Pick a position
Each case has one Judge or Mediator (who runs the session) and up to 5 people on each side: plaintiffs and defendants in civil cases, prosecution and defense in criminal cases, plus up to 3 witnesses per side. One position per person.
Follow the phases
The judge opens court, then openings, each side's case, closings, a ruling, and a feedback round. The judge moves the case from phase to phase.
Keep to time
Sessions run up to 1 hour as scheduled. The judge or mediator can extend in steps, up to 2 hours total.
See the phases of a 1-hour mock trial (civil and criminal)
Civil trial
- Call to order · Judge2 min
- Preliminary matters · Judge2 min
- Plaintiff's opening statement · Plaintiff5 min
- Defendant's opening statement · Defendant5 min
- Plaintiff's case · Plaintiff12 min
- Defendant's case · Defendant12 min
- Rebuttal · Plaintiff2 min
- Plaintiff's closing argument · Plaintiff5 min
- Defendant's closing argument · Defendant5 min
- Decision · Judge4 min
- Feedback round · Everyone6 min
Criminal trial
- Call to order · Judge2 min
- Preliminary matters · Judge2 min
- Prosecution's opening statement · Prosecution5 min
- Defense opening statement · Defense4 min
- Prosecution's case · Prosecution13 min
- Defense case · Defense10 min
- Prosecution rebuttal · Prosecution2 min
- Closing arguments · Prosecution & Defense8 min
- Verdict · Judge5 min
- Feedback round · Everyone9 min
Moot courts looking for volunteers
0 upcoming criminal moot courts
No criminal moot courts scheduled yet
Set one up in a few minutes. Start from a made-up practice case, pick a date, and members volunteer for the positions.
Recorded criminal moot court sessions
0 recordings
No recordings posted yet. Organizers can post one from their case page under Public viewing.
Moot court is practice. It is not legal advice, and nothing said in a session applies to anyone's real case. Members who break the conduct rules are removed and may be banned. Disclaimers and policies